-
December 27, 2018,

Well, I took a last-minute vacation day on Friday the 14th, and made it a GSD* day extraordinaire. Cleaned, baked, did laundry, put up the tree, and generally kicked ass. It perked me up some.

I managed to get all the baking wrapped up that weekend, and came home on Monday night (12/17) go pack it all up for shipping. Spouse sent it out Tuesday morning (FedEx 2-day with his discount), and everyone got their goodies on Thursday. They were all very enthused and happy about it.

Went to the dentist after work on 12/19: xrays, cleaning, exam, go back in January so they can repair a gap that has appeared between two adjacent fillings. Since I hadn't racked up anything towards my deductible for 2018, may as well wait till next month/year.

Amazingly, I had a 5:00pm appointment, but I got there at 4:30 and they took me early--I was out by 5:07! Aspen gets a bad rap, but I have had nothing but good experiences with the one I go to. And they are fast! And affordable--I pay extra at work for the "cadillac" dental plan that allows me to go outside of the ASA network, but even though Aspen is out of network, I still get a substantial "wrap" ppo discount. My biggest complaint is they rush the cleaning, but the actual dental work seems to be okay. Everything they've done so far has held up. (The filling issue is on an older bit of work from Dr. Aiello's office) They really push that horrible fluoride treatment, though. Bleagghh!

Anyway, since I was in that area, after the dentist I hit the Costco for gas, Rx, and a few needed items. and even pulled together a little dinner! I was home by 5:55, which is only about an hour later than usual. Would have been even quicker, but traffic on 50 is a BRUTE at that time on a weekday.

On Friday, I got the passenger seat heater in my car fixed--but had a whopping 3.5 hour wait at the dealer. MY ENTIRE AFTERNOON OFF was spent waiting for the car. Spouse got an earful, I assure you.

Especially since I'm pretty sure the 3.5 hours on waiting room furniture is what buggered my back--I had a four-day weekend for Christmas, but was largely incapacitated from throwing out my sacroiliac. The actual pain from the sacro was bad enough, but it also ended up wiping out my good side, which meant that I didn't have a good side for five days. Not optimal, especially when I have stairs to climb. But on the plus side, I could turn on the seat heater and use it for a heating pad when riding in the car!

I took it as easy as I could over the Christmas break, but the grocery shopping, laundry, and other chores needed to be done, so I did my best to alternate between the chores and the heating pad.

Monday (Xmas Eve), Spouse worked 6 to 2, so I got up early too. Didn't want to, but I had stuff to get done and I know from experience how much more productive I'm allowed to be when he isn't in the house.

I did a little cleaning, more laundry, and some prep for the big day: I pre-cooked the bacon and the home-fries for my Christmas morning breakfast, and made rice pudding (me) and butterscotch pudding (Spouse) for Christmas dessert. I even hauled my effed up carcase down to the basement to dig out the special Christmas pudding bowls, and gave them a good wash so I could serve the dessert in style (Tip of the hat to the shade of my perfectionist mother). My one concession to my back was foregoing the breadmaking I had planned.

When Spouse got home, we got cleaned up and went to his youngest brother's house for his Christmas Eve open house. Got there and found we had been boondoggled--P&E were there. They didn't speak to us, so we didn't speak to them. They didn't stay long, after we got there. (They were too busy rushing off to church to exercise any Christian charity, of course.)

Didn't see the youngest nephew, because he was running late. Didn't see the older nephew, because he hates his father and would never go to his house for any reason. But Niece was there, and got a C-note from her Godpapa for Christmas. We stayed about an hour, ate a little, and headed back. Stopped at Woodman's just in the nick of time before they closed, for milk, bread, and a few other things. Came home, and I had planned to make cocoa, but I hurt so bad and we were both so tired that we just skipped it and went to bed early.

Christmas day, we got up and I squeezed fresh OJ, and assembled our individual breakfast casseroles (with bacon, potatoes, cheese, and eggs), and popped them in to bake. Called Arizona and chatted a bit. We had a relaxing day, nobody did much till it was time to make dinner. Spouse took care of about 95% of that--all I did was put the potatoes on. We had a beautiful 2-bone beef rib roast, with mashed potatoes, homemade gravy, and roasted green beans. My puddings for dessert. Very delicious and lovely.

I was pretty much a slug all day, on the heating pad and the computer. Tried to rest up & recuperate for Wednesday. I actually slept decently, but still managed to wake up feeling like I had been beaten up all night. Felt better this morning; I think my joint clicked back into place overnite.

So anyway--Christmas 2018 done.

I got the EOB for the event monitor, and nearly stroked out at the cost, before I realized there was a $6100 DISCOUNT on it. Not that $700 OOP isn't a lot, but it's a whole lot better than $6800! I have one more visit tomorrow after work, but I don't have a clue how that will go. Since he ruled out heart problems, are we done? Go home, go about your business, and try to ignore the palpitations when they show up? Or will they want to spend a few more thousands of my money to figure out what the problem ACTUALLY is? Well, find out tomorrow, I guess.

Incidentally, cord-cutting is a bore. I guess I don't really care enough about television to do all the necessary research into digital antennas, streaming services, etc. Big yawn. I'm probably not going to be watching it, anyway. I cut my personal cord after Mad Men ended. Spouse can deal with all that. I'm sure it will end up costing more than I like.



*Get Shit Done